8 Limbs of Yoga - Asteya

asteyapratisthayam sarvaratnopasthanam
By abiding in freedom from the desire for other's possessions, that which is precious is revealed, and all that is beneficial is freely given

Yoga Sutra II,37 translation by Mukunda Stiles

Yamas - observances for living well - are the first of Patanjali's guidance for yogis: the third of the yamas is asteya: non-stealing. 

On a basic level, not stealing is one of the oldest rules of society and most of us would hope never to steal anything knowingly or unknowingly.

But it is not only belongings that we can steal ... taking away from another person's happiness, confidence, time, energy or ideas is stealing of a sort, as is betraying someone's trust; and envying someone else's life, or at least how that life is presented online or elsewhere, is the covetousness of the modern age.

Being satisfied with ourselves, our own gifts, and what we have is a quiet kind of spiritual practice; gratitude for all that we have been given is a baseline attitude for living well.

Giving more than we receive, opening our hearts toward the crotchety as well as the friendly, will bring us closer to freedom and happiness than jealously guarding what we have or hankering after someone else's life or possessions.

Science is catching up with Patanjali: research has shown that volunteering, mentoring, working for a good cause and random acts of kindness are good for mental health: these acts stimulate feelgood neurotransmitters in the brain, such as serotonin, and reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness, the dual curses of the modern age.

Practising asteya is part of our commitment to the environment too: considering carefully what we buy and how it has been produced, taking only what we need so that resources such as food are not wasted and trying where we can to reduce our own negative impact on the environment are all manifestations of asteya.

Bringing a sense of asteya to formal yoga practice might take the form of celebrating the beauty of another person's practice rather than finding yourself lacking in comparison; or not robbing yourself of the glory of your own asana or meditation practice by chiding yourself for what it isn't, rather than enjoying what it is.  Refrain from from grasping always for the next thing in your practice or training and allow things to unfold more naturally instead, with faith that what you will receive will be just right for you.

Patanjali teaches that all wealth comes to those who practise asteya; that by opening our hands and hearts to the world and sharing our gifts and talents freely, by ceasing taking too much or jealously guarding what we already have, we will receive the gift of receiving freely, exactly that which we need.

8 Limbs of Yoga - Satya

satyapratisthayam kriyaphalasrayatvam
when we are firmly established in truthfulness, action accomplishes its desired end

YS II,36 translation by Alistair Shearer

Yamas - observances for living well - are the first of Patanjali's guidance for yogis; the second of the yamas is satya: truthfulness, honesty, sincerity, integrity.

Such a simple vow, the promise to be honest, but much more difficult to consistently fulfil.  Small untruths litter our communications with each other.  We lie about the reason we are late, or the reason we can't make an event, how much we spent on a shopping trip, how many glasses of wine we had last night, books we've read, how much time we spent fruitlessly surfing the internet.  Other people may never know (or care) that we lied, but we know and we weigh ourselves down with it.

It can therefore be very liberating to tell the truth.  In a sense, telling the truth allows us to be totally human, accepting of our weaknesses and all of the mistakes we make, and content with that perfect imperfectness.  For example, if we admit that we are late because we overslept (instead of blaming the traffic), we are admitting to our mistake with the confidence that it doesn't have anything to do with who we are as a person.  Everybody gets up late sometimes.  We make the choice to be honest, rather than to find a false explanation that might conform more to what is expected of us (or what we expect from ourselves).  We choose to feel better on the inside, rather than to look better on the outside.

There are times when it might be hurtful to tell the truth, so we temper our honesty with kindness (ahimsa) - if telling the truth will hurt somebody, then it might be better to say nothing.  And satya doesn't give you license to go and tell the person you dislike all the bad thoughts and feelings you have about them.  Be wise, be kind, do your best.  As the Mahabharata advises:

"Speak the truth which is pleasant.  Do not speak unpleasant truths.
Do not lie, even if the lies are pleasing to the ear."

Mahabharata translated by TKV Desikachar

Part of yoga practice is to reflect honestly on all of our actions.  In the quiet stillness of yoga we confront ourselves and our actions with a clear eye and seek to understand the source of our behaviour, so that in future we might avoid the actions that cause ourselves and other people harm.  If you can't be honest with anyone else about the way you feel, you can at least be honest with yourself.  With careful scrutiny you are able to find the root of the matter and to discern why it made you feel and behave the way you did.  Once you understand that, you are free to address the causes in the hope that you might behave more generously in future. 

Satya is also about trusting yourself.  You know who you are and what you need, admitting this to yourself is an important first step to admitting it to the world and to living by your own deepest truth.  It's about integrity too: saying what you mean, meaning what you say and living up to it in practice.  

According to the Yoga Sutras, when we live honestly, speak honestly and think honestly, other people take more notice of what we say because they know it to be true; moreover we do not waste energy on the concealment of untruths and secrets.  Patanjali tells us in this sutra that through the practice of satya, we gain freedom.

"Tell the truth, tell the truth, tell the truth."

Elizabeth Gilbert

8 Limbs of Yoga - Ahimsa

ahimsa pratisthayam tatsannidhau vairatyagah
The more friendly one is, the more one stimulates friendly feelings among all in one's presence

YS II,35 Translation by TKV Desikachar

The first of yamas is ahimsa - do no harm.  Do no physical, verbal or mental harm to yourself or to others.

The idea of doing no harm might sound passive (we might think of those Jain monks sweeping the ground before them with a broom, lest they inadvertently kill a bug with their feet), but ahimsa is a dynamic, active, positive kindness.  It is the idea that formed the basis of Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent protest (satyagraha), which influenced Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela among others, and which demonstrates just how powerful, vigorous and world-changing this simple idea can be.

Ahimsa is a good first principle for your asana practice - practice with compassion and sensitivity for yourself.  You don't want to sacrifice the positive feeling gained in a pose by pushing yourself so far into it that you feel pain.  There is a balance to be found between effort in a pose (the sensation of having muscles work, stretch and come to life) and the pain felt when you crank yourself into a pose with the determination to get further or deeper, but without the self-love to make it work for you and how and who you are today.  Make the effort to come to your mat, commit to focus and do your best to make each asana your best version of it, so that it looks like your asana and not someone else's and so that it feels good (challenging, but positive).  That's all.  That's perfect.

Ahimsa is a good first principle when approaching your inner critic.  Most of us have one, don't we?  What does your inner critic say to you?  Would you ever dream of being as hard on anyone else as you are on yourself?  Ahimsa means accepting yourself exactly as you find yourself.  In your practice, see if you can be alert to your inner critic: notice when it sparks up it's commentary, listen to what it says to you, you will find that you can choose to ignore it.  You might even be able to laugh at it.  Decide to be kind to yourself instead.  Remind yourself that your thoughts aren't real.  Notice how rather than holding you back, this capacity for kindness within yourself actually helps you to achieve more.

Ahimsa is the most basic principle for living well.  Listen in and be kind.  Give kindness to other people.  My teacher told me that you can change someone's life by offering them a kind word.  I believe him.

Be kind to yourself and through finding compassion for yourself learn how to be kinder to others, even the people you find difficult; we're all just doing our best in any given circumstance.  Even just trying to be kinder to yourself and to others brings more kindness.  Don't intimidate yourself by imagining that you need to reach the highest of ideals, we can all think of someone who seems to us the quintessence of eternal sunshine and kindness (the Dalai Lama?  Nelson Mandela?), but we're all human, so we all get impatient, cross, grumpy, unreasonable, or frustrated sometimes. 

The great thing about yoga is that it lets us be human (with all our mistakes and weaknesses and the dark bits that we'd rather other people didn't know about), but it gives us space to reflect on how we could have a better, kinder, stronger, more generous way of living and it gives us a method for working towards that.

You can't truly be kind to others until you know how to truly be kind to yourself.  You above all others know the many ways that you have fallen short, and it is so much easier to linger on those memories than on the times that you did well, helped someone out or made a positive difference.  Sometimes you won't ever know how much something you said or did has helped another person.  Hold yourself in positive self-regard: you are a human being doing your best to be good, helpful, compassionate and you have a lot to give.

Be kind: don't jump to judge and separate yourself, seek instead to understand; treat others as you long to be treated yourself, with love and respect, regardless of whether or not they deserve or notice your kindness and regardless of what they offer you back.  Your kindness ought not to be dependent on what you hope or expect to receive from another. 

We all want to live in a kinder world, but the only part of the world that you can change is yourself.

It is obvious why this is Patanjali's first rule for living well, for without commitment to ahimsa one cannot very well set out along the path of yoga, or the path of living well.